Saturday, September 2, 2017

Creative Arts / Big E

Tatted Hearts
It's that time of year again!  The Eastern State Exposition is opening for the 101st time on September 15th!

Before the fair - all the craft folks get to enter their creations and they are judged.  Ribbons and awards are handed out - and the millions of folks that attend have the opportunity to see the crafts.

What crafts?  There are quite a few!  The division for this one, Tatted Hearts,  is #4 Lace.  I've also entered Lace into #12 Crochet - seems like crochet lace is still excluded from the Lace group (errrrr).

Come to the fair, it is truly a great time!

You can see more of my previous year's entries at the link below.

My previous Creative Arts / Big E Entries






Wednesday, January 11, 2017

More Challenge begins! - Week 1 - Household Paper Products - Saving Money

This week's tip is to help save some money so we can get some MORE sleep and MORE dreaming.

One of my pet peeves, as I go down the grocery aisle, is seeing every kind of household paper product you can buy to make your life better.  Really?  
Years ago I stopped buying paper napkins and paper towels.  Instead, I use cloth napkins and kitchen towels.   

Guests sometimes feel out of sorts when they receive a cloth napkin at dinner.  It is easy.  There is no waste, nothing to throw out, and it is less expensive in the long run!  Long ago I was staying with a family in France.  At the dining table each person had a cloth pouch and in that pouch was your napkin.  For each meal you removed your napkin and returned it to the pouch after the meal.  No fuss, no muss.  

As to paper towels.... I found this quote a while ago and it stuck with me. "13 billion pounds of paper towels are used each year. That's over 45 pounds of paper towels per person, per year. Talk about wasteful! If every American reduced the number of paper towels they use by just one per day, we would divert 571,230,000 pounds of paper waste each year."  https://www.theenergy.coop/community/blog/banish-paper-towel .

Time to do the math.  One roll of paper towels weighs about 8 oz and therefore about 2 rolls equals a pound.  45 pounds would equal 90 rolls of paper towels per person per year. That is kinda scary.  A roll of paper towels is approximately $1.00.  A family of four, if they're an average paper towel user, would spend $360 just on paper towels.  I could be losing sleep over this one.

Since I'm not using paper towels any longer, some family is taking up my slack!  Oh, the roll in the picture, that roll belongs to my late cat.  She would have those 'cat events' and a paper towel worked best in cleaning up the mess.

as we called it back then, was the only choice.  My gram and mom would wear one over their shoulder  or tucked into the waistband of their apron.  Those were the days.  I still find myself, when at my mom's house, taking the dish cloth and throwing it over my shoulder while helping in the kitchen.  

My solution to the paper towels are cotton, lint free, kitchen towels. My favorite ones come from IKEA  - called Elly, four per pack costing $3.99 per pack.  Yes I have a whole stack of them, about 24 in use at any one time.  I generally put out one-two each day or so and I'm set.  The soiled towels are put in the laundry area and when a white wash is going in, they are put in and voila.

For this week's MORE Challenge -- If you are already doing this bravo, you are enjoying the savings today and helping keep our earth!  Not yet ?  Consider trying it, then you'll be saving some money, sleeping  better and dreaming about what you can do with your savings.  

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

More Challenge! Are You Ready?

Happy New Year to everyone!  Welcome to the MORE Challenge.

What's the More Challenge you ask?  See the list on the left.   There is one 'more' on the list for each week of the first quarter of 2017! 

Just imagine how you would feel and the change in your life, if, by the end of March, you did each one of those 'mores'?

First - there are the excuses why you can not do all these 'mores'.  I looked to those excuses to find the underlying reasons (not all of them as I'm not a psychic) why we don't get to do MORE.

There are two excuses that seem to resonate on a regular basis -  'don't have the time' and 'don't have the money'.  Really?  If all these items were to be eliminated from life forever in the next 13 weeks, would you change what you are living life right now?  

Here is the MORE Challenge.  Join with me to explore as I share with you some hints and techniques that you can do to eliminate these two excuses. You'll be changed and possibly be richer in the end.  Let's enjoy the 'mores' that will enhance your life, your family and friends around you.